Modern History

• Gandhi was the first Indian barrister to have come to South Africa.
• He was faced with various racial discriminations within days of his arrival in SA.
• He led the Indian struggle in SA.
• The first phase of Gandhi’s political activities from 1894-1906 may be classified as the ‘moderate’ phase.
• He set up the Natal Indian Congress and started a paper called Indian Opinion.
• By 1906, Gandhiji, having fully tried the ‘Moderate’ methods of struggle, was becoming convinced that these would not lead anywhere.
• The second phase, begun in 1906, was characterized by the use of passive resistance, Satyagraha. There was no fear of jails.
• South Africa prepared Gandhiji for leadership of the Indian national struggle:
  • He had the invaluable experience of leading poor Indian labourers.
  • SA built up his faith in the capacity of the Indian masses to participate in and sacrifice for a cause that moved them.
  • Gandhiji also had the opportunity of leading Indians belonging to different religions.
• South Africa provided Gandhiji with an opportunity for evolving his own style of politics and leadership.
• Gandhi returned to India on January 9, 1915
• He founded the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad in 1916
• Initially he was politically idle. He spent his time studying the situation of the country.
• He was deeply convinced that the only viable method of political struggle was satyagraha.
• During the course of 1917 and early 1918, he was involved in three significant struggles – in Champaran in Bihar, in Ahmedabad and in Kheda in Gujarat. The common feature of these struggles was that they related to specific local issues and that they were fought for the economic demands of the masses.
• Champaran Satyagraha (1917)
  • Peasantry on the indigo plantations in Champaran, Bihar was excessively oppressed by the Eurpoean planters.
  • On the invitation of the peasants he went to Champaran and began to conduct a detailed inquiry into the condition of the peasantry
  • The government was forced to set up a committee with Gandhi as one of the members. The sufferings of the peasants was reduced.
  • Others in this movement: Rajendra Prasad, Mazhar-ul-Haq, J B Kriplani, Narhari Parekh and Mahadev Desai.
• Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918)
  • Dispute between workers and mill owners
  • Gandhi advised workers to go on a non-violent strike. He himself took to fast
  • Owners yielded and gave a 35 percent increase in wages to the workers
• Kheda Satyagraha (1918)
  • Despite crop failure in Kheda the government insisted on full land revenue
  • Gandhi advised the peasants to withhold payment.
  • Govt issued instructions that revenue should be collected from only those farmers who could afford to pay
  • Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played a major role in this satyagraha.
• Impact of these early experiences
  • Brought Gandhiji in close contact with the masses
  • He identified his life and manner of living with the life of the common people
• He had three main aims
  • Hindu-Muslim Unity
  • Fight against untouchability
  • Raising the social status of the women
• Gandhiji’s first major nation-wide protest was against the Rowlatt Bills in 1919. He formed the Satyagraha Sabha whose members took a pledge to disobey the Act and thus to court arrest and imprisonment.
• Satyagraha was launched. The form of protest finally decided was the observance of a nation-wide hartal accompanied by fasting and prayer.
• However, protests were generally accompanied by violence and disorder.
• In Punjab, the situation was particularly violent. Genral Dyer was called to control the situation. On 13 April, Baisakhi Day, General Dyer ordered to open fire on unarmed crowd in Jallianwala Bagh. The government estimate was 379 dead, other estimates were considerably higher.
• Gandhiji, overwhelmed by the total atmosphere of violence, withdrew the movement on 18 April.
• Difference between earlier methods of struggle and satyagraha
  • Earlier, the movement had confined its struggle to agitation. They used to hold meetings, demonstrate, boycott etc
  • Through Satyagraha they could act now.
  • The new movement relied increasingly on the political support of the peasants, artisans and urban poor.
  • Gandhiji increasingly turned the face of nationalism towards the common man
• Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
  • On April 13, 1919 a large crowd had gathered in Amritsar to protest against the arrest of their leaders, Dr. Saifudding Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal
  • General Dyer opened fire
  • Widespread criticism. Tagore returned his knighthood.

Muslim League

• 1906 by Aga Khan, the Nawab of Dhaka, and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk
• It made no critique of colonialism, supported the partition of Bengal and demanded special safeguards for the Muslims in government services.
• ML’s political activities were directed not against the foreign rulers but against the Hindus and the INC.
• Their activities were not supported by all Muslims
  • Arhar movement was founded at this time under the leadership of Maulana Mohamed Ali, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Hasan Imam, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, and Mazhar-ul-Haq. They advocated participation in the militant nationalist movement.

Muslim Nationalists

• The war between Ottoman Empire and Italy created a wave of sympathy for Turkey
• During the war between Ottoman empire and Italy, India sent a medical mission headed by MA Ansari to help Turkey.
• As the British were not sympathetic to Turkey, the pro-Caliph sentiments in India became anti-British
• However, the militant nationalists among muslims did not accept an entirely secular approach to politics
• The most important issue they took up was not political independence but protection of the Turkish empire.
• This approach did not immediately clash with Indian nationalism. However, in the long run it proved harmful as it encouraged the habit of looking at political questions from a religious view point.

Hindu Communalism

• Some Hindus accepted the colonial view of Indian history and talked about the tyrannical Muslim rule in the medieval period
• Over language they said that Hindi was the language of Hindus and Urdu that of Muslims.
• Punjab Hindu Sabha was founded in 1909. Its leaders attached the INC for trying to unite Indians into a single nation.
• The first session of the All India Hindu Mahasabha was held in April 1915 under the presidentship of the Maharaja of Kasim Bazar.
• It however remained a weak organization because the colonial government gave it few concessions and little support.

Partition of Bengal

• With the partition of Bengal, Indian National Movement entered its second stage
• On 20 July, 1905, Lord Curzon issued an order dividing the province of Bengal into two parts: Eastern Bengal and Assam with a population of 31 mn and the rest of Bengal with a population of 54 mn.
• Reason given: the existing province of Bengal was too big to be efficiently administered by a single provincial government
• The partition expected to weaken the nerve centre of Indian Nationalism, Bengal.
• The partition of the state intended to curb Bengali influence by not only placing Bengalis under two administrations but by reducing them to a minority in Bengal itself as in the new proposed Bengal proper was to have seventeen million Bengali and thirty seven million Oriya and Hindi speaking people.
• The partition was also meant to foster division on the basis of religion.
• Risley, Home Secretary to the GoI, said on December 6, 1904 – ‘one of our main objects is to split up and thereby weaken a solid body of opponents to our rule.’
• the nationalists saw it as a deliberate attempt to divide the Bengalis territorially and on religious grounds

The Swadeshi Movement

• The Swadeshi movement had its genesis in the anti-partition movement which was started to oppose the British decision to partition Bengal.
• Mass protests were organized in opposition to the proposed partition.
• Despite the protests, the decision to partition Bengal was announced on July 19, 1905
• It became obvious to the nationalists that their moderate methods were not working and that a different kind of strategy was needed.
• Several meetings were held in towns such as Dinajpur Pabna, Faridpur etc. It was in these meetings that the pledge to boycott foreign goods was first taken.
• The formal proclamation of the Swadeshi movement was made on 7 August 1905 in a meeting held in the Calcutta town hall. The famous boycott resolution was passed.
• The leaders like SN Banerjee toured the country urging the boycott of Manchester cloth and Liverpool salt.
• The value of British cloth sold in some of the districts fell by five to fifteen times between September 1904 and September 1905.
• The day the partition took effect – 16 October 1905 – was declared a day of mourning throughout Bengal.
• The movement soon spread to the entire country.
• Militant nationalists
  • The extremists were in favor of extending the movement to the rest of India and carrying it beyond the programme of just Swadeshi and boycott to a full fledged political mass struggle. The moderates were not as willing to go that far.
  • The differences between the extremists and moderates came to had in 1907 Surat session where the party split with serious consequences for the Swadeshi Movement.
  • In Bengal, the extremists acquired a dominant influence over the Swadeshi movement.
  • They proposed the technique of extended boycott which included, apart from boycott of foreign goods, boycott of government schools and colleges, courts, titles and government services and even the organization of strikes.
  • Aurobindo Ghose: Political freedom is the lifebreath of a nation.
  • Boycott and public burning foreign cloth, picketing of shops selling foreign goods, became common in remote corners of Bengal as well as in many towns across the country.
  • The militant nationslists, however, failed to give a positive leadership to the people. They also failed to reach the real masses of the country, the peasants.
• The movement also innovated with considerable success different forms of mass mobilization such as public meetings, processions and corps of volunteers.
• The Swadesh Bandhab Samiti set up by Ashwini Kumar Dutt, a school teacher, in Barisal was the most well known volunteer organization.
• During the Swadeshi period, traditional festivals were used to reach out to the masses. The Ganapati and Shivaji festivals were popularized by Tilak. Traditional folk theatres such as jatras were also used.
• Another important aspect was the great emphasis given to self-reliance or Atmasakti as a necessary part of the struggle against the government.
• Self-reliance was the keyword. Campaigns for social reforms were carried out.
• In 1906, the National Council for Education was setup to organize the education system.
• Self-reliance also meant an effort to set up Swadeshi or indigenous enterprises.
• Marked impact in the cultural sphere
  • The songs composed by Rabindranath Tago, Mukunda Das and others became the moving spirit for nationalists.
  • Rabindranath’s ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’, written at that time, was to later inspire the liberation struggle of Bangladesh and was adopted as the national anthem of the country in 1971.
  • Nandalal Bose, who left a major imprint on Indian art, was the first recipient of a scholarship offered by the Indian Society of Oriental Art founded in 1907.
• The social base of the national movement was now extened to include certain zamindari section, lower middle class and school and college students. Women also participated in large numbers.
• Drawback: Was not able to garner the support of the mass of Muslims, especially the muslim peasantry. The British policy of communalism responsible for this.
• By mid-1908, the movement was almost over. The main reasons were:
  • The government, seeing the revolutionary potential of the movement, came down with a heavy hand.
  • The split of the congress in 1907 had weakened the movement.
  • The movement lacked an effective organization and party structure.
  • The movement decline dpartially because of the logic of the mass movements itself – they cannot be endlessly sustained at the same pitch of militancy and self-sacrifice.
• The anti-partition movement, however, marked a great revolutionary leap forward for Indian nationalism.
• The decline of Swadeshi engendered the rise of revolutionary terrorism.
• Assessing the movement
  • Cultural impact
  • Social Impact
  • Economic impact
  • Role of students and Women
  • All India aspect of the movement
  • From passive protest to active boycott

Raja Rammohan Roy:

RRM Roy was a social reformer and intellectual in the early nineteenth century Bengal. He is most widely known for founding the Brahmo Samaj and his relentless campaign against the practice of Sati and child marriage.

Debendranath Tagore:

Brahmo Samaj:

BS was founded in 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy with the purpose of purifying Hinduism and to preach monotheism or belief in one God.

• The socio-religious reforms are also referred to as the Indian renaissance
• The socio-cultural regeneration in nineteenth century India was occasioned by the colonial presence, but not created by it.
• Formation of the Brahmo Samaj in 1828.
• Paramhansa Mandali, Prathna Samaj, Arya Samaj, Kayasth Sabha: UP, Sarin Sabha: Punjab, Satya Sodhak Samaj: Maharashtra, Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana Sabha: Kerala
• Ahmadiya and Aligarh Movements: Muslims, Singh Sabha: Sikhs, Rehnumai Mazdeyasan Sabha: Parsees
• Their attention was focused on worldly existence.
• The idea of otherworldliness and salvation were not a part of their agenda.
• At that time the influence of religion and superstition was overwhelming. Position of priests strong; that of women weak.
• Caste was another debilitating factor
• Neither a revival of the past nor a total break with tradition was contemplated.
• Rationalism and religious universalism influenced the reform movement.
• Development of universalistic perspective on religion
• Lex Loci Act propsed in 1845 and passed in 1850 provided the right to inherit ancestral property to Hindu converts to Christianity.
• The culture faced a threat from the colonial rule.